in these invasions. Not that the Swedes were less piratical, but that they robbed elsewhere,—in Russia, for instance, and in Finland.
The language of the three nations was the same; the differences being differences of dialect. It was that which is now spoken in Iceland, having been once common to Scandinavia and Denmark. Whether this was aboriginal in Denmark, is uncertain. In Scandinavia it was imported; the tongue that it supplanted having been, in all probability, the mother-tongue of the present Laplandic.
The Danish that became incorporated with our language, under the reign of Canute and his sons, may be called the direct Danish (Norse or Scandinavian) element, in contradistinction to the indirect Danish of [§§ 144], [155].
The determination of the amount of Danish in English is difficult. It is not difficult to prove a word Scandinavian. We must also show that it is not German. A few years back the current opinion was against the doctrine that there was much Danish in England. At present, the tendency is rather the other way. The following facts are from Mr. Garnett.—Phil. Trans. Vol. i.
1. The Saxon name of the present town of Whitby in Yorkshire was Streoneshalch. The present name Whitby, Hvitby, or White-town, is Danish.
2. The Saxon name of the capital of Derbyshire was Northweortheg. The present name is Danish.
3. The termination -by=town is Norse.
4. On a monument in Aldburgh church, Holdernesse, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, referred to the age of Edward the Confessor, is found the following inscription:—
Ulf het aræran cyrice for hanum and for Gunthara saula.
"Ulf bid rear the church for him and for the soul of Gunthar."